


The Crew of The Winter Sands

by NotLikeYouThink



Category: Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Genre: And not connected to anything, Homelessness, I just got the idea when writing something else and it wouldn't leave my mind, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Orphans, Past Drug Use, Running Away From Life in General, Thief, Thieving, This is literally only original characters, Unhappy marriages, so here it is, stowaway
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-19
Updated: 2018-12-03
Packaged: 2019-08-19 18:50:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 5,123
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16540178
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NotLikeYouThink/pseuds/NotLikeYouThink
Summary: The Winter Sandsis an old ship, with an interesting cast of characters that call it home. From its Khajiit captain to the Bosmer cook, the Dunmer that loves heights to the Orc that doesn't, everyone has a story, all of them unique.These are their stories, one-by-one, of how they came to crew the ship.





	1. M'dahna

**Author's Note:**

> So, this is a strange story. Each chapter is done in the POV of a different character, and they all end up on this ship.
> 
> I got this idea while writing chapter 6 of A Dragon's Equal, where Rune is sailing towards Solstheim. This is the same ship, and all the characters that title chapters in this story are in that ship, as it all happens before that moment--before dragons even come back. So that's something for ya.
> 
> Anyway, I hope you all enjoy it. I had fun writing it.

When M’dahna was just a young kitten, she had dreams of sailing Nirn’s seas with a crew of her own, one made entirely of Khajiit. But, living in the Breton city of Northpoint, there weren’t too many Khajiit around. It was mostly inhabited by those that were interested in maritime and sailing, much like her.

But when she was nine, her parents went out to sea and never returned. It was speculated that they had been killed by pirates, or a storm had drowned the boat.

Others thought that they were safe, they had just decided to abandon their daughter.

But that was years ago. Now, the rumours had mostly disappeared, and M’dahna was turning seventeen years old, still with the dream of sailing the oceans. But she was a homeless orphan, no one wanted her on their ships to teach her how to.

All except one person; Damiar Jonduelle, a retired sailor whose children had turned away from the life of sailing and instead choosing adventure in Valenwood.

The day the two of them met had been like any other, for the both of them. M’dahna was begging on the streets at the age of thirteen, begging for even a Septim to pay for food—most people turned her away. And Damiar had been walking along the docks, remembering the days of yore.

Usually, the sailors were the most generous, so M’dahna liked to beg around the docks. Most of them knew what it was like to live in poverty, having been out to sea for months or even years at a time, and knowing what it was like to run out of supplies and almost starve to death on the open sea. She had been turning to beg someone when she bumped into Damiar.

“I’m sorry, sir,” she told him, bowing at the waist like many nobles had told her to do whilst also spitting on her.

He placed a hand on her shoulder. “It is okay, child. What are you doing here?”

She stood up straight. “I want enough money to sail the ocean.”

And that was the start of a beautiful relationship.

Damiar still had his ship from his sailing days, as he had been saving it for his children, but they didn’t want it, so it sat neglected on the water, being cleaned by a crew that hadn’t gone out to sea for years, and were itching to.

He would have adopted her as his own, but his wife wasn’t the fondest of the beast races, and being a Khajiit, Janin didn’t like M’dahna. Just hearing the child’s name made her shiver in disgust and mutter about how High Rock belonged to the Bretons. M’dahna ignored her mostly, and tried to avoid her.

Damiar had taught her how to use the rigging, and all the nautical terms she hadn’t known before. She learned not to be afraid of the height from the crow’s nest, and how to navigate using the stars.

When she turned sixteen, he gave her clean clothes and got her a job at one of the local taverns, so she could get enough money to hire a new crew, as his one had quit to pursue new leads and jobs. She saved every Septim she earned at the tavern, and when she was seventeen, she got her first crew.

There weren’t nearly enough people to properly man The Winter Sands, Damiar’s old ship, but it would do for the time being. It was all she could afford, and she was excited for her first job.

Which had been an escort mission to Stros M’kai, the small island off of Hammerfell.

It was then that she learned not to take anyone’s shit.

The client, a Redguard named Caszo, had been rude and had refused to pay before setting sail. M’dahna, not knowing any better, let him pay once they got to Stros M’kai. He told her crew how to properly sail, though what they were doing wasn’t wrong, and called M’dahna grossly understaffed—which she was—and a lousy Captain.

It was on the second-last day on the two-week journey when she had snapped. She yelled at him, demanding that he paid her, and that if he didn’t, she would force him to work on her ship until he paid what he owned. Caszo, now scared of the young feline, had paid there and then, and stayed in his room until they docked at Stros M’kai.

She got her second client almost right away. A young Argonian couple had gone to Stros M’kai on holiday and wanted to go back to Wayrest. She had ordered her crew to set sail immediately, despite her crew’s concerns.

It was then that she learned not to leave immediately after docking.

They had run out of food halfway through the journey, and the crew were exhausted from the long trip to Stros M’kai. They had had to stop in Helgathe to resupply, and give the crew a rest. The Argonian couple understood, but were not happy. They waited two days before The Winter Sands was back on the ocean, fully stocked, and had no stops until Wayrest, in High Rock.

One of the members of her crew quit, then, saying he didn’t like the conditions they sailed under. She apologised, but let him go. She was now extremely understaffed, and her next client had given her an idea.

The Altmer, Eliaril Larethore, had been a sailor, but he didn’t want to sail anymore and instead wanted to go back to his home in Alinor. The trip would take three weeks, and seeing how understaffed she was, had opted to help instead of paying the way. M’dahna had eagerly agreed and, after a month of staying docked in the Wayrest docks, set sail for the Summerset Isles.

He had helped a lot, teaching the crew a couple things they didn’t know, and gave M’dahna pointers on how to properly captain a crew, now that he knew how inexperienced she was. The trip went a lot smoother than she thought possible, and was sad to see him go.

But, she was about to gain her first permanent crew member, one that would change how she saw the sea forever.


	2. Koriaya

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading and reviewing.

“I never want to see you again!”

The door slammed behind Koriaya Kaeahl as the reality of her decision weighed heavily on her shoulders, but she wouldn’t give her husband the satisfaction that she had turned back almost immediately after saying she never wanted to see him again.

She wrapped her cloak around her as she walked away from her home, her husband, and the children she never wanted, going to wander the streets of Alinor.

She thought back to the moment she met her husband. It had been a marriage their parents had arranged, much like most marriages were, and was loveless. Her first child had been conceived on their wedding night, as it was the first time they had laid together, and she had had a beautiful baby girl, with her white hair and her husband’s golden eyes.

But despite her best efforts, despite the love she felt for her child, she hadn’t been able to actually want her. Or her son, three years after her first pregnancy. Or her twins, both girls, who were ten years younger than her son.

She hadn’t been able to want any of them.

She had been wanting to leave for years, but the social stigma was too much for her, and she pretended to love her husband, she pretended to want her children. But enough was enough, and that night, fifty years after giving birth to twins, her husband suggested having another child.

She couldn’t take it. She didn’t want children, let alone five. She wanted out.

And that’s what she did.

From all her thinking, back to the night of their marriage sixty-four years earlier, to the present, she found that she had wandered to the docks.

The salty air always cleared her mind, and as she stood overlooking it, she found that a smile had creeped across her face.

She had finally escaped.

Now all she had to figure out was what to do now.

She looked over her shoulder, at the path she had taken to get there. She could go back, she could apologise to her husband, and tell her that she would have another child for him. Anything to make him happy. That thought made doubt creep into her mind, but she shook it out.

No, she couldn’t go back. She didn’t think her legs would take her back.

She looked back out over the sea. She was four-hundred-and-twenty-seven years old, and in all her long years, she had never left Alinor. Maybe that was her solution, leaving Alinor. But she didn’t know where she would go, or if anywhere in the Summerset Isles would take her.

She was so deep in thought that she didn’t see the person running towards her, and for a second she thought it was her husband.

But after a second, she realised it was Eliaril Larethore, one of her childhood friends.

“Koriaya, is that you?” he asked her as he approached her.

She nodded. “It is! And it’s you, Eliaril! Where have you been all these years?”

“Here and there,” he said. “I’ve been sailing around, but I’ve come home. How have you been?”

She scoffed. “I’ve been stuck in a marriage I didn’t want for the past sixty-four years, what do you think? I only just left, and I have no idea what to do.”

Eliaril narrowed his eyes, thinking. “I have an idea.”

She blinked. “You do?”

He nodded. “I know a ship that needs as many hands as it can get, even inexperienced. If you’re really serious about leaving your husband, go to the docks and look for _The Winter Sands_. Ask for a Khajiit named M’dahna.”

She pulled him into an embrace, and he hugged her back. When they parted, she told him, “Thank you,” and watched him enter the city properly as the sun cast oranges and reds over the night sky, reflecting onto the darkening ocean.

She looked down at the docks, where several boats were unloading, and others sat. Steeling herself, she made her way down the stairs that lead to the docks, her confidence growing with every step she took.

Her eyes gazed over the names of every ship, looking for the one that proclaimed _The Winter Sands_. She saw the peeling gold lettering on an old-looking ship, with its crew sprawled along the deck, exhausted from their journey on the sea.

Hesitantly, Koriaya stepped onto the deck of the ship, and one of the crew members lifted their head to see who it was. Groaning, she pushed herself to her feet and made her way to the Altmer.

“If you’re a client, speak to M’dahna in the captain’s quarters,” the Breton said, pointing to a door on the other side of the ship, before collapsing again in her spot.

Koriaya blinked down at the tired sailor, and saw that she had already fallen asleep, despite the awkward position of her limbs. She shook her head and made her way to the captain’s quarters. She raised her fist, anxiety pooling in her stomach, and knocked on the door.

A muffled, “Come in,” filtered through the door, and Koriaya opened the door.

It swung closed behind her, and she saw a Khajiit sitting behind a plain-looking desk, her feet up on the table, counting coins. She looked up when Koriaya entered, and she took her feet off the desk, trying to look professional.

“I am Captain M’dahna,” the Khajiit said. “How can I help you?”

Koriaya was silent for a moment, before she said, “I was told you could use some extra hands.”

M’dahna blinked at her. “Yes, we can. Who told you this?”

“Eliaril. He said to look for you.”

The Khajiit nodded. “Do you know anything about sailing?”

“No, but I can learn.”

“I have no business with dealing with inexperienced sailors,” she said, “so if you’re not going to hire me for anything, you can go.”

“Please,” Koriaya begged. “I need to leave Alinor, and you’re my only chance. I’m a fast learner. Please.”

M’dahna hesitated. “Why do you need to leave?”

“I’m escaping a loveless marriage,” she said. 

The Khajiit hesitated again, before saying, “I guess we could use more hands. There are only six of us manning a boat that requires almost thirty. And we are staying in port for at least a week, so I guess there will be enough time to teach you the basics…”

She trailed off, rubbing her chin. “Okay, you’re hired. I cannot offer you much, but if you really want to escape, I doubt that’s your problem. Is there anywhere you wanted to go?”

“Anywhere that isn’t here,” she said.

M’dahna grinned. “Welcome aboard, sailor.”

A week later, when they sailed off with a client, bound for Southpoint in Valenwood, Koriaya knew what she was doing, and she was happy.


	3. Daloves

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading and reviewing.

Running as fast as he could, pursued by the guards of Tear, Daloves Senthran weaved through the streets fo the port city, not exactly knowing where he was going.

He knew it was a bad idea to rob the palace. But he was starving and in need of money, and that was his best bet at it. Besides, it wasn’t like they didn’t have heaps of it.

An arrow wizzed passed his head, close enough for him to feel the draft that came from it, and swore loudly. He dug his heel into the pavement and turned into an alleyway, hoping to catch the guards off-guard.

But, of course, the guards followed.

Daloves spotted a wall at the end of the alley, but that wouldn’t stop him. He ran faster, then leaped at the wall, his feet scraping for a foothold as he pulled himself over the top, and over the other side.

He landed in a roll, and stared at the wall as he heard some of the guards shouting to find another way. Their bonemold armour was too heavy to climb, whereas Daloves was only wearing cloth and a sack full of valuables.

But he’d have to drop them somewhere. They were too hot with the local authorities, and staying in Morrowind would mean his death.

It was fortunate, then, that he found himself on the edge of the docks. Not believing his luck, he pushed himself to his feet, ignoring the stares from his fellow Dunmer, and went to find a ship that he could take—or, at least stow away on.

He untied his pack from his side—it didn’t have anything substantial in it, anyway—and dumped it into an empty barrel, placing the lid back on top of it. Maybe the guard would find them, maybe they wouldn’t. It didn’t matter, he was never going to be on Dres soil again.

He patrolled the docks, looking for a ship that didn’t have anyone on the deck, and just as his luck would have it, there was one—an old ship, the letters on the back peeling off, but still reading _The Winter Sands_.

He frowned at the name. It was a very weird one, but the ship would do.

He boarded the ship and, wasting no time, climbed up the main mast and into the crow’s nest. The barrel-like lookout point could hide him well from the guards, and even the crew members of _The Winter Sands_.

He didn’t know how long he sat there before the ship started moving. When it did, he poked his out the top of the nest and saw that there were several guards patrolling the docks, looking for Daloves. He swallowed the extra saliva in his mouth and ducked back into the crow’s nest, his stomach rumbling for food.

It wasn’t long before they were out to sea—Tear was still trying to rebuild from the Red Mountain incident, and then the Great War, so there really weren’t any obstructions that would stop the ship from leaving the port—and Daloves was starting to relax. But now he was a stowaway, on a ship that didn’t look properly manned, and in a spot that was really needed.

So it wasn’t really a surprise that, once they got out to open waters, someone climbed up into the crow’s nest, only to see Daloves.

They stared at each other, Daloves and the Altmer woman—he’d never met an Altmer sailor before—before the woman shouted down to the Captain, and climbed back down the main mast.

He swore. He should’ve figured it out, should’ve thought it through. But it was too late now, and someone was shouting up at him to get down.

He stood up and looked over the side of the ship, unperturbed by the height at which he stood and the swaying of the mast, and saw a young Khajiit woman glaring up at him, standing next to the Altmer woman and her crew.

“Whoever you are, get down from my crow’s nest, right now!”

Sighing, and seeing no other way, Daloves climbed out of the crow’s nest and down the main mast. When his feet touched the deck, he was surrounded, and he put his hands up in surrender when he saw several cutlasses pointed at him.

He swallowed. Did he accidentally board a pirate vessel?

“Who are you?” the Khajiit, obviously the captain, asked him, voice deadly serious. “Why are you on my ship?”

“My name is Daloves Senthran,” he said, staring at her. “I’m on this ship to escape the guards.”

“What did you do?” she asked him.

“I stole from the palace. I don’t have the items on me,” he added quickly when he saw the looks of disbelief on everyone’s faces. “I got rid of them while we were still on land. But the guards had seen my face. I’ll never be able to set foot in Tear again.”

The Khajiit thought for a moment, before telling her men to lower their swords. They hesitated, but did as they were told. 

“I am Captain M’dahna,” she said. “This is my ship, and these are my crew. If you’re willing to work for me, I can make sure the Morrowind guard never find you.”

He blinked in surprise. “You’re… going to help me?”

Captain M’dahna smirked. “Everyone has stories, and something they want to escape. I escaped poverty, and Koriaya here escaped an unhappy marriage,” she said, motioning to the Altmer next to her. “Besides, I need as much help as I can get. So, are you willing?”

Daloves thought for a moment. He didn’t know much about sailing but he guessed he could be taught. He doubted Koriaya knew what she was doing when she escaped her marriage.

“I don’t know much about sailing,” he said.

“Something tells me that you’ll be best suited in the crow’s nest,” she said. “Am I correct?”

He stared at her for a second, before nodding.

She nodded back. “Good. Welcome to _The Winter Sands_ , sailor.”


	4. Qa'eena

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading and reviewing.

Covering her head and neck with her scarf, Qa’eena glanced around the docks of Senchal, looking for her dealer. Her hands shook as she looked, her leg bouncing in its spot.

She needed skooma. She had gone too long without it.

She heard someone calling her name, and she turned around to see her dealer, S’lani, in the mouth of an alley. Quickly, Qa’eena made her way over to her fellow Khajiit, making sure that no one saw her enter.

S’lani held up a bottle of skooma. “Do you have the coin?”

Qa’eena nodded, pulling a fat coinpurse out of her pack. “Qa’eena does. Is that all that you have brought me?”

“There is more waiting for you, if you are willing to wait for it,” she said. “It is coming on a ship that S’lani has arranged. The crew doesn’t know the cargo.”

Qa’eena’s leg bounced again. “When is it coming?”

“Now. This one is going to pick it up in a couple minutes. S’lani just wanted to make sure you had the money. You can have this one.”

Qa’eena nodded, and took the outstretched bottle. She pushed it into her pocket, and watched as her dealer left the alley and headed towards the ships.

“So, you’re the one the skooma’s for,” a voice said from around the corner.

Qa’eena unsheathed a dagger she hid underneath her shirt and brandished it in front of her, towards where the voice came from. “Who’s there?”

A Dunmer man came around the corner, hands deep in his pockets. His red eyes held a glimmer of humour in them, a piercing through his left eyebrow and earlobe, both silver rings. There was a smirk on his face as he looked the Khajiit up and down.

“I overheard your conversation,” he said. “You’ve got a little problem that isn’t exactly _legal_ , now, don’t you?”

“Who are you?” she asked. “What do you want?”

“The name’s Daloves,” he said, “I’m the lookout for _The Winter Sands_ , the ship your friend hired to get cargo here. As for what I want,” he shrugged. “I don’t want anything. But you do, and that’s the problem.”

“Problem? What problem?”

“Shipping skooma is illegal, even if the people that shipped it didn’t know what it was,” he told her. “Which is why my captain makes up look through every crate, no matter if we were told not to open it. To keep us out of trouble, you know. So we know what your friend ordered. For you.

“I have a proposition for you. If you’re willing to come with me and sail for Captain M’dahna, I won’t report you to the guard for skooma use, and the added bonus is that you’ll quit it.”

Qa’eena narrowed her eyes at him. “Why are you giving Qa’eena this option? Why not give it to S’lani?”

“Oh, we’ve already called the guard on her. She’s being arrested as we speak, her contraband having been confiscated back in Haven. But with you, there’s still a chance to leave this stuff behind. Just us on the open seas. Trust me, you won’t regret it.”

She hesitated. What if he was lying, and was actually going to kill her? Well, the docks wasn’t really a good place to pick up victims, and and Qa’eena had claws and a dagger she could use as defence—which she still hadn’t lowered.

But if he were telling the truth… she could be rid of the evil that was skooma, much like how she had wanted to for years, but was too weak to give up. She thought to the bottle in her pocket, and made up her mind.

“Okay. Take this one to your ship, let me talk to your captain.”

He nodded, and turned on his heel, his hands still in his pockets. Qa’eena sheathed her dagger back under her shirt and followed, realising that he really was taking her towards the ocean, and not her death. She was good to trust him.

He led her to an old ship, its peeling letters proclaiming it _The Winter Sands_. She wondered what the story behind the name was as she boarded the boat behind Daloves. Coming off the gangplank was a hissing and screeching S’lani, being dragged off by guards for selling and trying to smuggle skooma into Senchal.

When the Khajiit say Qa’eena, she accused her of selling her out, and that she would pay for what she did to her.

“Don’t worry too much about it,” Daloves told her. “If we ever dock here again, you can stay on board. That’s what’s happening with me in Tear and Koriaya in Alinor. You’re not alone.”

In the middle of the deck, a Khajiit with a three-sided hat resting on her head was wiping her paws together. “That takes care of that. Daloves, who is that with you?”

The two of them stopped in front of the Khajiit, and the Dunmer motioned to Qa’eena. “This is the person that the Khajiit was going to sell the skooma to. I’ve offered her a second chance on this ship, if you don’t mind.”

The Khajiit narrowed her eyes, and circled Qa’eena, looking her up and down. When she got to standing in front of her, she held out her hand with a grin on her face.

“I am Captain M’dahna,” she said. “I welcome you onto my ship.”

Qa’eena stared at the hand. “This one is Qa’eena. Qa’eena is honoured to be given a second chance.”

“We need all the help we can get,” M’dahna told her. “Tell me, what do you know about sailing?”


	5. Maeola

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading and reviewing.

Standing on the railing of _The King’s Enemy_ , gripping the side of a Jacob’s ladder to keep herself from falling into the sea, Maeola watched as her ship neared the trading ship, every other pirate on board the ship waiting to board it.

From where she was perched, she could see a Dunmer yelling down from the crow’s nest of _The Winter Sands_ , and the severely understaffed ship started slowing down as its crew ran to start defending it.

Her captain, a Redguard like her, Achetrius, ordered everyone to attack when they came up next to the other ship, and Maeola prepared to do just that, with her cutlass grasped in her hand. Around her, her fellow pirates prepared to do the same.

Keeping her balance, and watching as an Altmer woman on _The Winter Sands_ readied a bow, Maeola jumped onto the deck of the other ship, rolling onto her knees and cutting down one of the few crew members there were.

She stood up and jump out of the way of an arrow. Turning around to face the Altmer, she was surprised to see that a Khajiit woman was duel-wielding cutlasses of her own, taking on two pirates alone. She cut one across the stomach, and focused her energy on her second enemy.

Maeola grit her teeth and brandished her cutlass in front of her. So there was a skilled fighter in the traders’ ranks; it wasn’t enough to keep themselves from saving themselves from the pirates.

She got into the fray of the panic, with her fellow pirates goading a Breton trader to attack them, but he wouldn’t budge, his back against the railing of the ship. She attacked the Altmer with the bow, forcing her to drop it and unsheathe her cutlass, which Maeola doubted she knew how to use.

Their swords clashed together, and the Redguard swung at the Altmer again, this time catching her on the arm.

A loud bell came from the fog that surrounded the two ships, a fog that was usual for the Sea of Ghosts, and Maeola and her fellow pirates stopped their fighting when they realised it was from one of the Imperial Empire’s ships, one that was on the lookout for pirates.

Swearing rippled through the ship, and the captain—who had stayed on _The King’s Enemy_ — ordered the ship to leave, leaving everyone that was still onboard the merchant ship behind.

All of them charged for their ship, several of them making it, others bouncing off the railing and crashing into the cold ocean water. Maeola knocked the Altmer’s cutlass out of her hands and elbowed her in the nose, then sprinted for the side of the ship to jump to their ship.

But as she jumped onto the railing to jump to the right ship, her foot slipped on a coiled piece of rope, causing her to slip and hit the railing with her stomach, sending her toppling overboard.

But in that whole scenario, the rope had coiled around her leg, and she hadn’t fallen far before she face-planted into the side of the ship, her cutlass falling from her grip and the sheathed dagger she kept in her boot falling into the sea as well. She groaned in pain as one of her fellow pirates screamed as he fell into the water, his head connecting with the hull of _The King’s Enemy_ just before he hit the water, rendering him unconscious.

As her ship sailed away, and what was possibly the lowest point in her life came about, she felt herself being lifted. She looked up to see that the rope that was wound around her leg was being pulled by the surviving members of the crew of _The Winter Sands_ , pulling her up over the railings and onto the deck.

She landed on the deck as an Imperial officer boarded the ship, having jumped onto it from the Imperial ship that had come up next to them.

“Is everything okay here?” he asked everyone.

A Khajiit woman, a different one from the Khajiit that had killed several of Maeola’s fellow pirates, nodded. “We’re fine. You scared the pirates off. Thank you.”

“Where are you headed?” the officer asked. “If it’s nearby, we can give you an escort, just in case the pirates come back.”

Maeola was confused as to why the Khajiit woman wasn’t telling him that she was one of the pirates that had been driven off, but she wasn’t about to argue.

“We’re headed to Dawnstar,” she said. “Going to drop off a shipment of furs from Northpoint.”

The Imperial officer nodded. “I’ll go tell the general.”

He turned on his heel and boarding the Imperial vessel.

As soon as he was off the boat, the Khajiit woman come in clase to Maeola.

“Listen closely, as I’ll only say this once. I’m offering you a place on my crew, replacing the man you slew. If you’re interested, I won’t tell the officers that you’re a pirate. If you’re not, you’re never going to see the sea again. Choose quickly, because you have until he comes back.”

The Dunmer had climbed down from the crow’s nest by then, and looked like it wasn’t the first time she had offered it. Perhaps he had been a pirate, or even a stowaway, and had chosen to stay.

Gritting her teeth, she nodded. “I’ll stay.”

She’d never liked the land. At least she would still be sailing.

The Khajiit grinned. “Good choice. I’m guessing you know a bit about sailing, from our meeting today. Oh, and if you’re planning on betraying me, think again. Because Qa’eena over there knows how to kill, and you’ll be dead before you lay a hand on my crew. Do you understand?”

Maeola stared at M’dahna for a second, before she nodded. “I understand.”

“Good.” She held out her paw to help Maeola to her feet, and the Redguard took it.

She was just glad she was getting a second chance.


End file.
